Chapter Summaries

Pomona and Severus spent a private day together before Severus went outside to repair a shed. She considered her new life and possible potion experiments, then watched him grow a tree with magic as the basis for the shed.

• Pomona teased Severus about sweets and George, and they kissed while discussing whether she should intervene in George’s dispute.
• Severus left to repair the shed after Pomona noticed spring had arrived and planned to sow seeds in the overgrown fields.
• Pomona considered cultivating riverweed in Water of Lethe to make a dream potion and reflected on strength, ambition, and the people connected to her past.
• Severus asked Pomona where he should build the shed, then used Reviving Potion and a spell to grow a large tree from two seeds.
• Pomona joked that they were fortunate not to have neighbors and went to prepare lunch.

Pomona confronted Severus about altering a book and discussed Hogwarts gossip, Andre Egu’s disappearance, and the danger of rumors. After the war, Andre and his family returned from hiding, while Rita Skeeter promoted a book portraying Severus as a saint; Pomona set the newspaper aside when someone called her.

• Pomona discovered that Severus had crossed out a passage in her book about Dark potions and found him in the secret study with her hidden Shrivelfigs.
• Pomona and Severus discussed rumors about Ginny, Dean Thomas, Harry Potter, and McLaggen, then turned to Andre Egu’s disappearance.
• Pomona told Severus she was not afraid and urged him to watch his godson, while Severus revealed that Lucius had been arrested.
• After the war, Andre Egu, his sister Jules, and their parents returned from Japan and publicly declared that they had been hiding.
• Pomona read about rumors and Rita Skeeter’s new book, Saint or Villain, before answering someone who called her.

Pomona returned from the Muggle district to find Severus brooding over a book, while the Goblins’ defiance and the lingering scars of war remained on people’s minds. The story then shifted to Georgiana witnessing the young Paganini perform “The Devil’s Trill” on a blood-red violin.

• Pomona overheard witches dismissing the Goblin demonstration and worried that people underestimated the Goblins’ defiance over the ban on wands.
• Pomona returned home, where Severus discussed Bachi’s use of Shrinking Solution and teased her about tying her up or locking her in a cage.
• A hunter discovered Severus’s oddly shaped house, prompting Severus to remember to place protective enchantments on it.
• Pomona recalled the fear and displacement caused by the war, including Aurors searching Malfoy Manor, Taubert’s parents’ deaths, and families fleeing Britain on the Grand Magic Express.
• Pomona considered alchemy, the limits of the Philosopher’s Stone, and Severus’s past efforts to find a way to prevent Dumbledore’s death.
• Georgiana watched the young Paganini perform “The Devil’s Trill” on a red violin and connected its appearance to the enchanted violin she remembered from the Alps.

Pomona studied Dumbledore’s research on dragon blood and reflected on magic, science, and power before going out with Severus. The chapter then shifted to Georgiana, who questioned Ledrell about General Bessières.

• Pomona learned how Dumbledore’s research revealed dragon blood’s cleaning properties and how different dragon bloods affected potions.
• Severus interrupted Pomona’s reading, and she agreed to go out to dinner and shopping with him after they shared a kiss.
• A young man’s performance drew Duport’s audience while the narration discussed chemistry, scientific standards, plant consciousness, and Pomona’s theories about magic.
• Pomona considered the Goblet of Fire’s dream potion, the meaning of immortality, and the dangers posed by ambition and unrest.
• Georgiana asked Ledrell what he knew about General Bessières as The Devil’s Trill played.

Georgiana followed a Doxy and confronted a nobleman who had spoken with Ledrell, while Pomona accepted Sirius’s invitation to a movie after accidentally injuring him. At the concert, Ledrell discussed Bessières’s romance, and Georgiana later questioned Alice about Major Desaixville before discovering that the Doxy had vanished.

• Georgiana bound an old nobleman with a Full Body-Bind Curse after overhearing him question Ledrell about his travels.
• Pomona burned a Doxy before it could fall into the soup, accidentally injured Sirius, and treated his hand while he reassured her.
• Sirius invited Pomona to a movie, and she eventually went to see it with Molly instead.
• Ledrell told Georgiana about Bessières’s childhood sweetheart and his refusal of a marriage arranged by Napoleon.
• Georgiana questioned Alice about Major Desaixville, who said he had helped care for Alice’s mother and promised to protect Georgiana.
• Georgiana told Major Desaixville that she had followed a Doxy out of her room, and they listened as its cries disappeared.

Georgiana heard Desaixville explain how the Revolution and Napoleon’s rise had changed France, then questioned him about Bessières and the First Consul’s beliefs. She resolved to keep investigating the remaining Horcrux and leave the Mirror World rather than rest.

• Ledrell’s account described how tense crowds in Châlons and Sainte-Menehould disrupted the arrangements for Louis XVI’s escape.
• Desaixville’s history recounted Bessières staying in the Constitutional Guard and Desaix being imprisoned for opposing the king’s execution before serving on the Rhine.
• Georgiana’s discussion with the noble and Desaixville revealed that Bessières had acted with the First Consul during Brumaire and that the general aimed to establish a stable, glorious nation.
• Georgiana asked Desaixville whether his general was a fool for defending Louis XVI and marrying a tax farmer’s daughter, but he turned the question back to her.
• Georgiana decided to keep gathering evidence of an undestroyed Horcrux so she could leave the Mirror World.

Georgiana reflected on war, death, and European history while discussing political figures, land systems, and the assassination attempt with Desaixville. Desaixville hinted that a general had observed something about Georgiana, but he did not explain what.

• The chapter recounted a folktale about a girl who mistook her dead fiancé’s ghost for a returning lover and escaped it by praying until sunrise.
• The girl found that the cemetery’s soldiers had no names on their graves, so she dressed every gravestone in the wedding outfits she had made.
• The chapter described Napoleon’s disputes over political appointments and his warning to Cambacérès about what to do if he died.
• The chapter explained Frederick the Great’s land-grant policy and the complicated rules governing German noble titles and inherited land.
• Georgiana asked Desaixville how a general had observed her, and Desaixville said only that she must have come from far away.

Georgiana learned how General Moreau’s family disrupted Napoleon’s wedding arrangements and agreed to clear Alice’s reputation, while Aston Martin gave her a state letter before leaving for Aachen. Exhausted by the political and personal turmoil, she let Napoleon handle the Corsican noblewoman he had rescued and fell asleep without hearing the Doxy again.

• Desaixville explained that Madame Hulot and her daughter had taken Josephine’s place at Notre-Dame, angering Napoleon and contributing to his break with Moreau, and admitted he had been the guard ordered to protect the spot.
• Georgiana agreed to stop rumors about Alice and to tell Madame Bonaparte about the wedding incident.
• Aston Martin gave Georgiana a state letter before leaving for Aachen and advised her not to love too seriously; she asked how many people in Lyon supported Moreau.
• Matilda told Georgiana that the First Consul had rescued a Corsican noblewoman, and Georgiana said to let him do as he pleased before returning to rest and falling asleep.

Pomona connected the fairy tale of a murdered water spirit to frozen Pensieve memories and the dangers faced by Veela and other magical women. She reflected on Georgiana’s place in other people’s affairs and resolved to focus on ending her own troubles before returning to prove Harry right.

• Pomona asked Severus whether Pensieve water could freeze and suggested that a frozen memory might have revealed the girl’s murder to the wizard in the tale.
• Pomona recounted how the wizard exposed the stepmother and sister’s crime with a singing golden spinning wheel, leading the king to find the revived girl.
• Pomona considered whether the girl was Undine and linked the tale’s dangers to Veela, Queenie, and women whose partners or children faced prejudice.
• Pomona reconsidered her interference in Josephine’s marriage and decided she had to prioritize resolving the time-travel or Portrait Curse problem.
• Pomona resolved to return and prove Harry right, despite others believing the Battle of Hogwarts had ended everything.

Pomona reflected on a fairy tale and her memories of Severus before he startled her with an ice-mouse prank. Georgiana prepared for dinner, discussed Alice’s feelings for Major Desaixville, and had the Duchess of La Rochefoucauld read her Christmas scroll, whose contents remained undisclosed.

• Pomona explained the Muggle tale of the Noon Wizard to Severus as he drank soda.
• Pomona considered how magic, ice, and Pensieves related to the buried truth in the fairy tale, then put the ice back in her cup.
• Severus slipped an ice mouse into Pomona’s clothes, and she ran after him in anger.
• Georgiana dressed for dinner in a gown and pearl-and-fire-diamond necklace while reflecting on Giuseppina and her own missing Swan Necklace.
• Georgiana told the Duchess of La Rochefoucauld she would not interfere in Alice’s association with Major Desaixville but did not want them to become intimate too soon.
• Georgiana asked the Duchess to read her Christmas scroll, watched her reaction, and left without revealing what it said.

Henry stayed at the mill after Elisa told him a cursed princess appeared in the pond at the full moon, while a little demon tried to keep him away from her. In Georgiana’s story, she left a violin performance, returned to the masked ballroom in a daring dress, and raised a toast to peace.

• Henry met Elisa beside the pond and learned from a water sprite that she was the miller's daughter, not a princess.
• Henry carried wheat in the mill and refused to leave when Elisa claimed a cursed princess lived in the pond.
• A little demon overheard Elisa’s story and planned to drive Henry away.
• Georgiana left after a young musician performed The Devil's Trill and later returned to the ballroom wearing a black lace mask and a revealing dress.
• Georgiana raised her Champagne glass and toasted peace, and the guests drank.

Pomona reflected on scandal, ambition, and the choices people made while preparing to reject Toots’s job application. Later, she read Severus a fairy tale about Henry and Elisa, and their conversation ended with Severus asking whether she preferred the black or white swan.

• Pomona recalled Madame de Merteuil’s ostracism after Valmont’s letters became public and compared Valmont’s choices with Dorian Gray’s.
• Pomona considered Neville’s determination and hoped he would care for her greenhouse if she had to leave, then began writing to refuse Toots’s application.
• Pomona thought Toots had copied the Revival Potion and Greening Potion from old books and considered using that knowledge to deter him.
• Henry exposed the little demon after it tried to frighten him away from Elisa, then searched a ruined castle after the demon and a water sprite deceived him.
• Elisa’s father ordered her to choose a husband, and she asked Henry, the duke, the little demon, and the water sprite to bring her the world’s most beautiful gift.
• Henry recognized Elisa beneath the moonlight and accepted her; afterward, Severus asked Pomona which swan she preferred, and she blew out the candle.

Georgiana reflected on the dangers facing women without protection and on the limits of love in a harsh world before meeting Joannes at a reception. Joannes revealed that Romanian envoys and a new place to settle her Dragon awaited her, then vanished into the crowd.

• Georgiana considered how actresses and women like Dorian Gray's fiancée and Emma could be trapped by wealthy suitors, and recognized that she had chosen her own troubled path.
• Georgiana connected the fairy tale of Elisa and Henry to the dangers of feudal power and Henry's decision to leave his village in search of a wider world.
• Georgiana met Joannes, the mayor of Metz's younger brother, and discussed the castle donated for orphans and the meaning of his name.
• Joannes called himself the Fool, pointed out two Romanian envoys, and told Georgiana they were her Christmas gift and that she needed a place to settle her Dragon.
• Georgiana watched Joannes disappear and wondered who he was after her empty glass mysteriously filled with wine.

Georgiana questioned Mrs. Langenhorn about Joannes’s fylgia, then considered whether the Romanian wizard Felix Yang might have an undying body and drew the Knight of Swords in a tarot reading. The chapter left Georgiana avoiding Matilda and Jim White after losing one hundred thousand Francs on the Jet Devil.

• Mrs. Langenhorn told Georgiana that her husband’s younger brother Joannes had a fylgia called Battista, which usually appeared as another person and was kind to the children.
• Leila Black left to check on Carter and the others, and Georgiana wondered whether Felix Yang’s survival could be explained by an undying body.
• Georgiana recalled Rasputin’s death and prophecy, then drew the Knight of Swords while reflecting on religious wars and European political upheaval.
• Georgiana saw Matilda chatting with Jim White, the lawyer who had accidentally killed the viscount, and pretended not to notice them after losing one hundred thousand Francs betting on the Jet Devil.

Georgiana reflected on Bonaparte’s double and the life-giving substance called “Sun Gold,” then realized she had forgotten Northern Europe while considering how to recover it. When Belgian police reported arrests after a disturbance, she ordered the detainees released and summoned Fiegel, Judge Bane, and senior officials for a meeting.

• Georgiana reasoned that Bonaparte’s black shadow might be his Hamingja, a double that could act independently, and considered the risks posed by doubles and Hamr.
• Georgiana realized the “Sun Gold” from the Alps labyrinth was likely an elixir-like substance and remembered that she had handed it to Voldemort, who could project his double into animals such as ravens.
• Georgiana cursed herself for forgetting Northern Europe, where she believed the next clues might lie.
• Fiegel brought Belgian policemen to tell Georgiana that they had arrested several ringleaders involved in the disturbance, and Georgiana ordered them all released.
• Georgiana sent Fiegel to summon high officials and Judge Bane, intending to hold a meeting.

Georgiana met with examining magistrate Baines and ordered him to release demonstrators protesting taxes, compensate them for losses, and relocate the city’s cemeteries away from residents and water sources. The chapter ended with Baines agreeing to prepare an official document and remarking that the First Consul was heartless.

• In a memory of a dark broom closet, Pomona demanded more Dream Potion from the Potions Master, who had made it using her dragon blood.
• Georgiana recalled the history of witch trials and legal customs while considering how local justice could be used to stop persecution.
• Georgiana told Baines that the demonstrators’ protest against taxes was reasonable and ordered him to release them courteously and compensate them for losses caused during their arrests.
• Georgiana assigned Baines to move the city’s cemeteries away from residents and water sources, allowing him to seek help from councilors.
• Baines agreed to prepare an official document, then left to release the demonstrators and called the First Consul heartless.

Pomona visited Hogsmeade and the Forbidden Forest, where she found Hagrid with the dying Aragog and told him Ron had been poisoned. Elsewhere, Georgiana reflected on witch trials and the fate of women accused of witchcraft, while Second Salem’s orphaned children learned songs for Pomona’s lessons.

• Pomona bought food for Grawp and asked Flitwick to help turn plant taxonomy into a song.
• Pomona found Grawp in the Forbidden Forest, fed him, and learned that Hagrid had gone to the Acromantulas.
• Pomona found Hagrid reading to the weakened Aragog and told him Ron had been poisoned; Hagrid decided to visit Ron.
• Pomona left Aragog in the spider kingdom rather than risk alerting the Acromantulas by trying to move him.
• Georgiana recalled witch trials in Innsbruck and Salem, including the execution of Bishop and another condemned woman.
• Second Salem’s orphans learned nursery rhymes for Pomona’s teaching, and Georgiana thought of Fiegel and the Knight of Swords.

Pomona completed the Dream Potion’s transformation of the Goblet of Fire and prepared to let Hagrid enter the maze. The chapter then shifted to Georgiana, who ordered Fiegel to find a recruit to disguise as a woman for a secret mission.

• Pomona relived Snape’s memories of Lily before a shadow accused her of jealousy and she woke on the floor of her office.
• Filch told Pomona that Hagrid was looking for her, and she left Hogwarts under the Invisibility Cloak.
• Pomona joined Albus, Madame Maxime, Hagrid, and the others at the maze, where they each wore one of her red safety stars.
• Pomona poured the Dream Potion into the fountain, and its magic transformed the fire around the Goblet of Fire into a display that Flitwick confirmed had succeeded.
• Albus led the group away, leaving Hagrid to take his turn, while Pomona reflected on happiness, power, and the story of The Fountain of Fair Fortune.
• Georgiana instructed Fiegel to find a new recruit from Fontainebleau and bring him to her dressed as a woman for a secret mission.

Pomona explored the haunted mirror passage with Sirius and James, while Georgiana later used a tarot spread to consider the Fire Opal Ring, Voldemort’s plans, and the prophecy. After memorizing the spread, Georgiana put away the cards and went to sleep.

• Pomona met Sirius and James, who had skipped History class to show her the haunted mirror on the fourth floor.
• Sirius used a magical butterfly to open the mirror, and James and Sirius entered the passage while Pomona waited outside.
• Pomona joined them in a storage room, where James explained that the space behind the mirror seemed to change with its reflection.
• Georgiana reflected on the Fire Opal Ring, the Death Eaters’ failed attempt to reach Dumbledore through the passage, and Voldemort’s interest in creating a perfect body.
• Georgiana drew and studied eight tarot cards, then memorized the spread and went to sleep after Margarita urged her to rest.

Pomona visited Sirius at an old Hogsmeade bookshop and read an account of wizards investigating a ghostly blue flame near De Rais’s estate. The account ended with one wizard abandoned in the fog, and Pomona found nothing useful for Sirius’s research.

• Pomona brought Sirius apple crumble while he researched clues for a special map in the bookshop.
• Sirius gave Pomona old books to read, and she opened a volume about the alchemist De Rais and his murders of children.
• Pomona screamed when a spider crawled onto her hand, and Sirius crushed it beneath his foot.
• Pomona read an account of Mr. Mitiash investigating a blue flame amid wolves, fog, and a red monster, while his companion fled and left him behind.
• Pomona dismissed the account as a horror story and continued searching the books for useful information.